EDITOR'S CHOICE -- SCOTT SUTTELL

Cleveland and other cities are leading a downtown revival

Forbes.com includes Cleveland in this feature/slideshow about 15 U.S. cities that are revitalizing their central business districts to lure young professionals.

“Today, more than $3.5 billion is currently invested in furthering the area's redevelopment. The Global Center for Health Innovation and a 750,000 square foot convention center will open this summer, totaling $465 million,” Forbes.com notes.

Downtown's population “nearly doubled in the two decades ending in 2010, according to Census data, and the area welcomed the biggest percentage increase in population growth of any district in the greater city as a whole.”

The website adds that from the fourth quarter of 2011 through the fourth quarter of 2012, the number of housing units grew about 13%, according to the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. An additional 715 units are expected to come online in 2013.

The Cleveland-based company's Washington unit plans an upgrade of Ballston Common Mall in Arlington, Va., “that would include adding a row of sidewalk retail along Wilson Boulevard and building 306 residential units above the property,” the newspaper reports.

Thomas W. Henneberry, chief operating officer at Forest City Washington, tells The Post he has begun discussing the future of the 579,000-square-foot mall with county officials and pitching the idea of a reconfiguring it with prospective restaurant and shop owners.

In trying to open the mall up to the street and add housing to it, The Post says, “Forest City is pursuing a similar strategy to other mall owners in the area who have watched shoppers migrate to more urban, mixed-use projects.”

A new report from CardHub.com, cited in this Wall Street Journal story, says that more than 50% of U.S. consumers “don't keep a budget — and more than one in five don't have a good idea of their spending.”

And Clevelanders are among the worst offenders.

The Journal says CardHub ranked the 30 biggest metro areas based on six factors: credit scores; debt-to-income ratios; combined bankruptcy and foreclosure rates; amount of “revolving” (credit card) debt adjusted for cost of living; total debt-to-median home price ratio; and non-housing expenses adjusted for cost of living, relative to average income.

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